Author of three books. This blog not very active so follow on Twitter: @gary_weiss

Monday, June 19, 2006

Mark Cuban: His Righteousness Endureth

Mark Cuban today stoutly defended his much-criticized plan to trade -- in advance of publication -- on information his reporters dig up for his new investigative reporting website.

Cuban's response is that he has no choice. Otherwise he would have to dirty his hands with crude stuff like selling advertising. Not for this guy. You know advertising -- the conflicts of interest and all. Naah, just turn your reporters into a personal stock-tip service. Cuban concludes by observing that "right is its own defense."

Yup, it's important to do the "right" thing -- particularly when it means getting market-sensitive info unavailable to the public, extracted by his reporters from sources who may not be aware that they're helping some billionaire get even richer.

And I thought Cuban aimed to make a buck by throwing the basic ethical principles of investigative reporting (and reporting generally) out the window! How stupid of me. All the time he wanted to take a principled, moral stance, like Gandhi or Oskar Schindler.

What makes this whole thing frustrating is that this is otherwise a good idea. A website on stock fraud would be welcome because of the media's indifference to the subject -- as I explored in Wall Street Versus America.

I still hope that Cuban comes to his senses and decides to act responsibly with his website. But so far he's acting like just another rich guy with a new toy.

Links to this post:

About Me

I'm a journalist and author. My latest book is AYN RAND NATION: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul (St. Martin's Press: Feb. 28, 2012). My previous books were Wall Street Versus America (Portfolio: 2006) and Born to Steal (Warner Books: 2003). I was an investigative reporter and Wall Street writer for BusinessWeek, a contributing editor at Condé Nast Portfolio, and have written for the Daily Beast, Parade magazine, Salon, The Street.com, Fortune.com, Barron's and many other publications. I was an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of Journalism. Follow me on Twitter @gary_weiss Email: garyweiss dot email at gmail dot com